RULES ON RADIATION ACT DELAYED

Draft regulations to implement last year's Radiation Compensation Act, already nearly two weeks overdue, will probably be delayed until late May, a spokesman at the Department of Justice said Thursday.

The act was approved by Congress last fall, directing the Department of Justice to draw up guidelines and procedures within 180 days for compensating those affected by radiation from atomic testing and from exposure in mines. That time expired Aoril 12.An aide in the office of Paul Yanowitch, in the civil division of the department, told the Deseret News that problems in dealing with test-site workers was delaying completion of the regulations.

Other sources said Congress left the department without guidelines for test-area workers when it added them to the program in a last-minute move by the appropriations committees. Regulations for downwind civilians were spelled out specifically in the law.

Justice Department officials have been in Utah this spring, surveying ways to determine who should receive compensation.